Sight Center calls on new revenue stream

The call center employs 45 people — a number that is expected to grow in the coming years.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted came to Cleveland in August to talk about how his office has improved the services it provides the state's businesses and that the number of business filings has increased. He also touted that the cost of running the Secretary of State's office is down.

Husted, maybe not coincidentally, is considering a run for the governor's office next year. However, he made a point of mentioning how one key to that success has been outsourcing his phone answering operation to the Cleveland Sight Center (CSC). The call center there answers the phone for the Secretary of State's office from people looking to find out how to file the paperwork needed to start a business or how to check on the status of an existing business.

Husted said that even though call volume has risen from 8,000 a month to 11,000 a month, wait time has been reduced 96%, to an average of about 15 seconds, while saving the office about $100,000 a month.

"Finding Larry Benders (the CSC's president and executive director) and what they do at the Sight Center was just a tremendous win, both in terms of the customer service improvement and also the mission that they have," Husted said. "And we're putting people to work. As much as people can talk about technology eliminating jobs, here it's creating jobs for people who otherwise wouldn't have access to work."

CSC employs 45 people at its call center and Benders hopes to grow that significantly in the next several years.

Nearly all, 98%, of the call center employees have a vision deficiency, said Jassen Tawil, CSC's director of business development. Some are completely blind, others have contrast issues.

Some of those with limited vision use high-contrast screens or screens with large print. For those who are totally blind, the center's call-handling system has a speech synthesizer that can convert words on the screen to voice, said Tawil. So some operators have headsets with one earphone listening to a caller while the other translates information on the computer screen to voice.

Many work in a 70,000-square-foot space in the Sight Center's office at East 101st Street and Chester Avenue in Cleveland. Others, about 20, are able to work from home. The center handled 427,317 calls and emails in 2016 and that number is growing.

Founded in 1906 as the Cleveland Society for the Blind, the CSC provides rehabilitation services, training, recreation and independent living services to people who are blind or visually impaired. Benders said the call center revenue is helping the agency fulfill its mission — help people who are blind or who have limited vision to realize their full potential — as government funding sources decline.

The Sight Center's winning bid for the business of Husted's office is one of a handful it's won from state agencies under a state procurement program designed to assist nonprofits. The CSC has seven major contracts with state agencies — the Secretary of State's office, the Department of Education, the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, three with the Department of Health and one with TourismOhio, the state's travel agency.

TourismOhio began contracting with the Sight Center in 2012. CSC's call center now handles between 1,000 and 1,400 calls a month to the organization's 1-800-BUCKEYE number. Additionally, CSC employees also review the descriptions for attractions and upcoming events for the Ohio.org website.

"We're pleased with the work of Cleveland Sight Center," a spokesman said in an emailed statement. "They are a good partner working with TourismOhio."

Most recently it won a four-year, $2.8 million contract to answer calls for Help Me Grow, a health department program for pregnant women and new parents. Beginning in August, CSC employees began handling intake and referral processing, child finding, public awareness and outreach calls.

People with disabilities have a high unemployment rate (more than 70%), said Tawil, despite the fact they have capabilities that are extremely valuable in the workplace.

The contracts were won under the Community Rehabilitation Program of the Ohio Office of Procurement. The state has identified a handful of products and services that state agencies can acquire from qualified nonprofit agencies.

Besides call center services — the CSC is the only nonprofit in Ohio with a qualifying call center — the state has identified 96 qualified agencies that currently hold 76 state contracts. Among the other products and services purchased under the program are data entry, lawn care and silk screen printing.

For the state, the programs are a win-win, said Benders. Putting disabled people to work reduces government entitlement payments and increases state income tax revenue.

In fiscal year 2013, that meant a savings per employed disabled worker of $2,182, according to an Office of Procurement calculation.

What started out in 2007 as a training center for people who are blind or have limited vision became a revenue-generating call center for the CSC.

"It turned out to be a great business opportunity for us," Benders said.

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